Laminar flow hoods are highly essential and vital laboratory equipment. In fact in most places, these equipment are part of mandatory safety regulations. Laminar flow hoods help in purifying contaminated air inside biological and chemical laboratories. Primarily these laminar hoods are of two types: the vertical laminar hood and the horizontal laminar hood. In this article, you will learn about the difference between these two types of laminar flow hoods.
What is the function of the laminar flow hood?
The laminar flow hoods will be purifying the air in a laboratory by simply removing the toxic and chemical particles and all other chemical and dangerous microorganism from the air inside the laboratory. The air in any laboratory can get contaminated with lots of harmful contaminants and so it is of immense importance that the lab workers can get shielded from being exposed to such low quality air. The laminar air flow hoods will be a remedy to this problem. They will be having lots of other uses also and can be used in several different applications too.
Two types of Laminar Flow Hoods:
Primarily you will find two main types of laminar flow hoods: The vertical laminar flow hood and the horizontal flow hoods.
Vertical laminar flow hoods: In these hoods you will find the air in your room get channeled in through a special intake mechanism. There will be a blower which will direct it towards the high efficiency particulate air filter or the HEPA. Then a part of this air will be eliminated through an exhaust vent and then it will leave that area completely. Once the air has been filtered through the HEPA, then it will again flow back inside the room. The air shall be flowing constantly through your lab in layers.
Horizontal laminar flow hoods: These horizontal laminar flow hoods get designed typically like the work benches. Below the working surface you will find a pre-filter that shall be drawing the air inside the room to the HEPA. From the HEPA, the air shall be cycled smoothly on the total work surface.
There are a lot of applications in which laminar flows are used. Like:
- To direct the flow of air in all special care units and hospital rooms to ensure that a patient does not get exposed to any form of contaminants. For example, burn patients cannot be risked getting exposed to any contamination.
- To control airflow in hospital rooms where patients can be quite contagious, thus prevent contaminants that get emitted from entering and affecting other patients.
Conclusion
Both vertical and horizontal laminar flow hoods are important to be used in working laboratories. These equipment will guarantee that the environment inside the laboratories is safe and free from unhygienic substances. A lot of states have strict rules of using these laminar flow hoods inside labs and industrial areas. Hopefully the information mentioned in this article would have given you some valuable insights.
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